Australia and New Zealand Slavists’ AssociationNew Zealand Slavonic Journal

Transcending the Absurd: Drama and Prose of Slawomir Mrozek, Studies in Slavic Literatureand Poetics by Halina StephanReview by: Lila ZarnowskiNew Zealand Slavonic Journal, (1998), pp. 333-334Published by: Australia and New Zealand Slavists’ AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40922004 .

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Halina Stephan, Transcending the Absurd: Drama and Prose of Slawomir Mrozek, Studies in Slavic Literature and Poetics; Rodopi, Amsterdam, GA 1997.

Reviewed by Lila Zarnowski.

The book Transcending the Absurd is devoted to Slawomir Mrozek, the most prominent Polish dramatist as well as satirist and short story writer. Through his creative life he has been known as theatre critic, author of cartoons, movie scenarios and journalist.

Halina Stephan analyses Mrozek's output, both drama and other literary forms, in order to show diversity of form and content in his work as well as his immense creativity. Her approach is strictly chronological, rather than, thematical, which is very useful for students and scholars interested in Mrozek. Her index of plays and stories as well as chronology of Slawomir Mrozek's life and writing are comprehensive and very useful for researchers.

In the chapter 'Literary Profile' the author offers a concise and thorough introduction and overview of Mrozek's unique character as writer. It is worth noting that Mrozek has been routinely placed by Western literary critics alongside with Durrenmatt and Beckett as one of the most significant dramatist in our times.

The book, whilst comprehensive in its overview of Mrozek's ouvre, does not fulfil the promise suggested by the title. The theme of Transcending the Absurd is not discussed at all.

This theme is very important for our understanding of Mrozek's writing, because since the early 1960s critics would place him within the circle of so-called absurd playwrights. Lately, however, attention has been drawn, especially by Polish literary critics, to differences between Mrozek's writing and works of Western absurdists. Western absurdists define the absurd at its ontological level. They show human loneliness in the universe, and in their works they appeal directly to the emotions of their audience. Mrozek however, especially in his dramas, prefers the ethical approach, where the absurd, as suggested by Malgorzata Sugiera in her book Dramaturgia Slawomira Mrozka (Universitas, 1996): "... proves to be the improvable result of human decision, requiring from the spectators both their cool distance and common-sense estimation." Malgorzata Sugiera illustrates this statement by

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comparative discussion of two plays by Mrozek Strip-Tease and Out at Sea, and two stage plays: La Parodie by Arthur Adamov and L' Architect et I'Empereur d'Assyrie by Frenando Arrabal. She regards them as being closer to Mrozek, then Ionesco and Beckett.

Other critics, for example Martin Esslin and Edward Czerwinski, use the term "Eastern Drama of the Absurd" to contrast East European dramatist's abundance of realistic and political components with the lack of similar concerns in the work of Western absurdists.

Halina Stephan's book is well suited for research and study. However, its major drawback is its lack of continuity. The chapters exist as entities on their own, but are not linked together, and do not lead to an obvious conclusion. The theme of Transcending the Absurd could have been this link.

One of the most interesting parts of the book is the description of what Slawomir Mrozek thinks and says about his own writing and creativity. Perhaps Halina Stephan had been strongly influenced by those opinions and decided to be more factographical rather than opiniographical.

Halina Stephan asks herself in the chapter 'Literary Profile': How is it possible then to write a book about Slawomir Mrozek? Mrozek himself gives the following piece of advice in a letter to Jan Blonski:

Most certainly, everything that once was written about me in Polish papers, was not and is not useful for me. That he is a "satirist" ? That [he appears as] Ionescobeckettwitkacygombrowicz? that [he responds to] 'The romantic heritage"? that "Polish"? that [he shows] "conflicts of ideas, not characters"? What good does that do for me? One should write about me like one would write about anyone and anything. About history, about periods, about Poland, about how they impact a person, and how he rolls, shrinks, opens up, runs away, attacks, what ideas he gets, what his approach to life is, what his fears and hopes are when he cannot but has to, what and how he tries to pretend, where and how he succeeds, and how he does not ... Even if it came to my head, which is unlikely right now- if I were to write my own external-internal autobiography for publication, I would not write the whole truth. (For example why did I once upon a time become a Party member? Why did I leave the Part? All this only seemingly had to do with "political views").

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